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From Seafarers Trust

Unforgettable Shipmates

At the end of January 2001, in Nelson, a memorial was unveiled to the memory of all those people who gave their lives putting fish on the tables of New Zealanders in their homes, or in the restaurants of the country, or, transporting our country's produce overseas or around these islands.

Why create a Memorial?

Because so many over the years gave their lives helping to provide for the needs of an island nation, a largely unseen cost of the lifestyle we all enjoy.

The Memorial consists of a pier, The Sunderland Memorial Pier, specially constructed for a Memorial Statue to stand at its end and be backgrounded by the sea and the mountains on the north west side of Tasman Bay.

It is a most impressive statue, depicting the strength of the seafaring man and carrying that strength through to a time of emergency, which is the theme behind the representation.

Those behind this enterprise are the ones, who more than anyone else, know the true cost of each mouthful of fish that most of us enjoy, whether with chips from a shop, which has become an integral part of our communities, or as an entree to expensive hotel cuisine. They are also people who know the true costs of the imports and exports which flow to and from the circulation system that keeps us a viable nation and which also have this unseen but very real cost of human lives.

This Memorial is a National Memorial funded and set up by the seafaring and associated industries to acknowledge all those who have lost their lives at sea. All this has been set up by the organizations behind the enterprise under the name of the "Seafarers Memorial Trust", however, there is still a piece missing, the names of all those who gave their lives providing the advantages the sea makes available to a nation such as ours. This is where we need the assistance of all those who have lost relatives or shipmates and who would like that relative or shipmate.